While taking about bonsai with my contextual theory tutor I was taken a little of guard. In mentioning possibilities about writing about bonsai and Japanese tradition he drew parales of control fantasies and themes of BDS in counter to my take on bonsai aligning with loss of control and being beholden to nature. Comparing the binding and cutting to themes of domination with similar to the another Japanese artform of shibari. At first i found the consistent referral to sexual themes …. unusual.
But now as I’m reproaching the project as more absurd and comedic rather than as a unsettling horror. I now see the humour and absurdity. Players could be “accidently” given a incorrect tool to use on their tree as part of bondage gear (the tree having a reaction to this would be a laugh.
